1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



735 



could do somctliiiiff to niakp it lacking ovory 

 y(^ar. if we knew tlic cause? Do others find the 

 damage comineiicing with the slotted hole? 



now MUCH WAX PER COLONY ? 



On page 701. friend Root, in speaking of ISoard- 

 nian's wax-extractoi-. you say: "It can not be 

 that they cost very much, if it. will pay a man 

 to have one. who produces only 50 lbs. of wax a 

 year." That sounds as if yoii thought 50 lbs. 

 per year a small amount. To me it seems a 

 large amount. Extracting, of course, produces 

 more wax: but with comb honey I don't think I 

 have ever averaged as much as two ounces per 

 colony, and your remark raises the ([uestion 

 wjiether there may not have been something 

 wrong in my management. I know that, pre- 

 vious to this year. I have not saved wax as I 

 should: but this year I have had one of Green's 

 solar extractors, and I think nothing has gone 

 to waste. The more I think of it. the more I 

 think I shall lessen rather than increase two 

 ounces p(>r colony. If the good time comes 

 when no brace-combs are built above top-bars, 

 then I hardly se(> where I shall get any wax. 

 except by melting uj) old combs or an occasional 

 spoiled section. Will that give one ounce per 

 colony? Hut I should say that it pays to buy a 

 wax-extractor if you have only L'5 lbs. of wax 

 per year. I'm not sure but I should want one 

 for only 10 lbs. 



isn't this a fkp:e country? 



Friend A. I., I wish you'd look after Ernest a 

 little. On page 702, under the head of "A Few 

 Stray Hits." he talks just as if Elwood, Hethei'- 

 ington. and others had a right to certain terri- 

 tory, and that no one else had a right to go 

 there, and apologizes at the last for even hint- 

 ing that any one might think of doing such a 

 thing. Now, I'm sure that Hetiieiington. with 

 his aotX) colonies, has a better territory than I: 

 and if I want to settle right down beside him. 

 I'd like to know what's to hinder. I'm sure I 

 could learn something from him. and it would 

 be convenient to be so near that I could run in 

 any evening and ask his advice. Please don't 

 let Ernest talk any more about any one's '" ter- 

 ritory." Why, you see if the notion obtains 

 that there is such a thing as a moral right to a 

 given territory, some fool will get up and ask 

 that laws be passed to make the moral right 

 legal. 



obnoxious sections. 



On page 707 you ask, " Is it not true that some 

 sections that have perhaps been tried one or 

 two seasons became obnoxious to the bees?" 

 I have had a few such, but it was generally 

 where the foundation had been drawn out veiy 

 little or not at all; and, being left on the hive 

 the latter part of the season, the bees had 

 glazed the entire surface with propolis. It is 

 not because such sections have been used, but 

 because they have not been used, that the bees 

 reject them: and they are not tit to be used, 

 even if the bees foiuid no fault with them. We 

 all know that bees prefer an old black comb to 

 a bright new one: but one that has reiuained 

 unused in the hive through late summer, when 

 bees are in the varnish business, is quite an- 

 other thing. 



WORKERS LAYING IN QUEEN-CELLS. 



Referring to Frank W. Lighton's case on page 

 709, I may say that I have had a number of 

 cases in which I looked to see wh(?ther a young 

 queen had yet commenced to lay: and I decided 

 she was lost, by tinding an egg in a queen-cell 

 and no other eggs in the hive. Sometinu's. at 

 least, laying workers are satisiied to stop for a 

 time, after getting an egg in a queen-cell. 



Marengo, 111., Oct. 4. C. C. Miller. 



Fifty pounds of wax is worth, .say, S15.00. If 

 this amount of wax should be wasted, if the 

 man did not have a wax-extractor, lu; had better 

 buy one, to be sure. But I was thinking that 

 30 or 40 lbs. of it would be saved any way. But 

 even in that case, the saving of 10 lbs. of wa.x 

 would pay for the extractor, providing it does 

 not cost more than 1*3.00. Come to think of it. I 

 guess, doctor, you are right, that it will pay to 

 have a wax-extractor where you produce 50 lbs. 

 of wax in a year. — In regard to obnoxious sec- 

 tions. I do remember that these that the bees 

 will not use are almost always well varnished, 

 and perhaps some propolis, too. thrown in. I 

 have also decided many times that a colony 

 was queenless because I found a single egg in a 

 rudimentary queen-cell. I judged this single 

 egg to be the work of a fertile worker, and I 

 think they often commence by laying one egg 

 —perhaps no more — in the hive. After a few 

 days, however, we are pretty sure to see more 

 such eggs. 



AUSTRALIA. 



A RAD SEASON FOR BEES ; EXCESSIVE RAINS. 



It is with much regret that I write to tell you 

 of another bad seasoiL The drouth of 18S8 and 

 "89 has been followed by a year of excessive rain. 

 In the last fourteen months we have had 108.76 

 inches; in fact, we have taken to counting our 

 I'uinfall by feet lately. The average rainfall for 

 the thirty previous years was 31.45. We have 

 had so very few sunny days in the last three 

 weeks that we have had but one day on which 

 the bees could work the wattle (mimosa), which 

 yields the earliest pollen in great profusion. It 

 is all out in blossom now. but the bees have not 

 been able to touch it yet. 



The season opened splendidly, but we took 

 only half a ton of honey in the early part of the 

 year. The rest of the season was so wet that 

 the bees could scarcely make a living, much 

 less store any thing, and so we have had to feed 

 them this winter to i<eep them alive. For miles 

 around us. in fact, w ith few excei)tions. all over 

 the country, the bees in the bush and those in 

 box hives have all died out. One neighbor had 

 73 colonies in box hives, and has not one now. 

 Another, a few miles away, had 180. He had 

 lost them before winter set in. 



MOTHS AND ANTS. 



They say the moths and ants have done it, 

 and are much surijrised that ours have escaped; 

 but we know the poor bees were .so jjoverty- 

 stricken and disheartened they let their enemi<'S 

 take possession of their hives. 



BROOD-FRAMES ; METAL CORNERS NOT SATIS- 

 FACTORY. 



AVe have been very much interested in the 

 controversy going on in(JLEANiNGs with ivgard 

 to the \\'ii-ing and sagging of fi'ames. We ^\■ire 

 ours exactly as you describe the pi'ocess in the 

 A H C. except that we use a shoe peg instead of 

 a tack, and we have lun'er known a proi)erly 

 wired all-wood frame, with tin ui)right. to sag. 

 The metal coriu-rs do. The weight of the hon- 

 ey twists and bends the tins into all shii|)es. and 

 we are more ti'ouliled w ith bui'r-combs on the 

 metal-cornered frames than on any othei'. We 

 have used the reversible frames only two sea- 

 sons, and they were both poor ones; so it is 



